‘Buying a flat ruined my life’: Leaseholders plead for tougher legislation against home ownership ‘scam’
When Chris Hayes bought his first property in 2017 aged just 28, he didn’t realise the decision would “ruin his life”.
The flat, in central Manchester, was newly built when he moved in. But within a year water started leaking from the “badly built roof” and he is now facing a £170,000 bill to repair it.
The 34-year-old says paying that would leave him “homeless, bankrupt and possibly even jobless”, as going bankrupt would disqualify him from his profession in financial services.
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But Chris, not the developer, is liable for the costs under the terms of his lease – the “feudal” arrangement that allows someone to buy a property on land or in a building they don’t own.
“The biggest mistake of my life was buying this flat,” he said. “It’s basically ruined my life.”
Chris Hayes’ flat is ‘95% damp and humidity’
Water ingress in Chris Hayes’ flat
Chris is one of a dozen leaseholders who spoke to Sky News as the government’s flagship Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill makes its way through parliament.
Ministers say the legislation will stop “abuses” in the controversial system by making it easier and cheaper for people to extend their lease, buy the right to their freehold and gain the right to manage their block.
But leaseholders say it doesn’t go far enough in protecting them from being “extorted” by freeholders, who own the land they lease, and managing agents, who typically run building services on the landlords’ behalf.
Water damage in Chris’s flat
Ceiling damage in Chris’s flat from a badly built roof
Chris said he complained about the roof leaking as far back as 2018 but “nothing was done to rectify this” and the problems are now so bad, the insurance provider “is refusing to pay out”.
To fund the repairs, his service charges for 2024 were raised to £14,000 a month days before Christmas, and he has been told he will have to leave his home for seven months while the roof is fixed, and cover the cost of the temporary accommodation himself.
He is weighing up his legal options. But he isn’t feeling hopeful.
‘My £800,000 dream flat is now worthless’
Almost 200 miles away in north London, Dan Bruce has spent five years and £300,000 in legal fees fighting for redress over problems to his building that was constructed so poorly, that a structural engineer has assessed the whole thing might have to be demolished.
Rotting timber in Dan’s flat
Internal cracks in Dan’s walls
Dan, 40, poured his life savings into the £800,000 apartment in Camden, which is now effectively worthless as he can’t sell it. The property was built in 2018 but almost immediately after moving in, he began noticing serious defects ranging from cracks in the external wall to ceiling leaks and rotting timber.
The government intervened to ask Camden Council to issue a remediation notice against the developer – with Housing Secretary Michael Gove even calling the situation “deplorable”. But under the terms of Dan’s lease that would have allowed the developer, who is also the freeholder, “to charge us to fix their own shoddy work”, Dan said.
Instead, he has had to spend thousands of pounds in an “exhausting” legal fight against the developers, contractors and insurers involved in signing off the building as safe.
A structural engineer assessed Dan’s building might have to be demolished
Collapsed ceiling in Dan’s Camden building
A rotted ceiling, rusted and deflected structural steel beam and rotted wooden joists – all from water ingress in Dan’s flat
Dan, who has yet to receive a penny in compensation, said it has taken a “huge toll on his mental and physical health”, with the stress inflaming his psoriasis and “draining me of the energy to do things I used to enjoy”.
While his case highlights the wider issue of poor workmanship and weak consumer protection in the new-build sector, it also goes to show the deep unfairness embedded in the leasehold system, he added.
“Why is it that when it benefits the freeholder, you’re a leaseholder, but when it doesn’t, you’re a homeowner? I shouldn’t have to deal with any of this as all I really have is a piece of paper saying I am allowed to occupy this flat.”
He called the government’s bill “weak” and said it should include measures to prevent leaseholders from having to pay for latent defects.
Chris added: “There’s so much further the bill needs to go with regulation around management companies as they seem to be able stick bills at you with no rhyme or reason.”
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Dan Bruce has spent £300,000 in legal fees to get compensation
Dan says the issues are taking a toll on his physical and mental health
External wall cracks in Dan’s building
New bill means leaseholders can ‘take back control’
The proportion of new-build houses sold as leasehold rose from 7% in 1995 to a peak of 15% in 2016, according to government data. There are five million leasehold properties in England in total – equivalent to one in five dwellings.
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The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill, championed by Mr Gove, will abolish leasehold on new houses but not new flats, which make up 70% of leasehold properties.
Its main provisions include relaxing the criteria required for leaseholders to extend the length of a lease, buy the freehold and manage their buildings. It will also introduce standardised service charges to increase transparency and protect leaseholders from paying for their freeholders’ legal costs when challenging bills.
Mr Gove said this will ensure leaseholders can “take back control of their property” and ensure service charges, as well as ground rents, are transparent and “reasonable”.
Leaseholders say defective newbuild homes have ‘ruined their lives’
But Labour MP Barry Gardiner, who has spent 20 years campaigning to abolish leasehold and recently made a documentary on it, said the bill is “133 pages of tinkering with a fundamentally unjust system”.
“Leasehold needs abolishing, not updating. It’s a relic of a feudal system,” he added.
Leasehold system ‘rotten to its core’
Mr Gove had promised to scrap the system entirely but was reportedly forced to row back on the pledge over concerns there was not enough time before the next general election to enact such a major reform.
The English leasehold system has its origins in the 11th century and is deeply entrenched in landownership and property laws.
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Michael Gove: Leasehold ‘unfair form of property ownership’.
There have long been calls to abolish it, with campaigners calling it “rotten to its core”.
Those who spoke to Sky News detailed issues ranging from inflated service charges and ground rents to a lack of transparency over costs, threatening behaviour from management agents, excessive administration fees and building insurance and disproportionate costs to extend leases or buy the freehold – with many cases of the freehold being sold without them even realising.
Many described the system of homeownership as a “scam”, adding that they were kept in the dark about the true extent of what they would have to pay.
Mum-of-two Sherren Kerr didn’t anticipate any issues when she bought a house in Camden in 2016 that was advertised as a “virtual freehold”, with a 999-year lease and no ground rent or service charges – only building insurance.
But that shot up from £800 a year to £2,500 a year when the freehold “was sold unbeknownst to me”.
She said the situation was causing a “huge amount of stress and depression”.
“There is nowhere to turn when faced with these bills,” she said. “This is my family home and they on several occasions have made it quite clear that I am just a tenant.”
The National Leasehold Campaign wants to see the system abolished. Pic: NLC
The National Leasehold Campaign call leasehold ‘rotten to its core’. Pic: NLC
‘It feels like the post office scandal’
Sky News has also seen evidence of leaseholders being threatened with forfeiture – which enables a landlord to seize a leasehold property – for asking for basic details about how their bills have been calculated. Redress schemes to complain are lengthy and expensive and the outcomes are not legally binding, allowing freeholders to “act with absolute impunity”, said one young mum, who did not wish to be named.
“It feels like a scandal similar to the postmaster one where innocent people’s lives and mental health are being destroyed by bullies who will not play by the rules,” she said.
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Leaseholders who can’t afford to stay in their properties have few routes out because the punitive charges make it nearly impossible to sell – leaving them effectively trapped.
Gill Potter, 56, says her buy-to-let flat in Hertfordshire is a “worthless asset” because of a “toxic ground rent clause” that states the amount payable will rise every 10 years by inflation.
This is a charge freeholders can collect simply for owning the land – not for any service. There are cases of the fee being as high as £8,000 per year, according to Mr Gardiner.
‘It’s a scam’
Gill’s charge is currently a fraction of that, £250 per year, but her buyer’s lender refused to offer a mortgage unless the ground rent was capped – something her freehold would not agree to.
Gill Potter can’t sell her flat because of a ‘toxic’ ground rent clause
She is desperate to sell as mortgage rates have increased from £268 a month to £1,187. However, seeking a Deed of Variation – effectively a new lease – will cost her between £20,000 to £30,000.
Gill said: “I feel as though I was mis-sold my property because I was unaware of the implications of that clause buried in the long and densely worded legal document – and apparently so were my solicitors, who didn’t mention it at the time of purchase.
“With leasehold, you’re not buying the flat. You’re buying the right to live in the flat. It’s a scam.”
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Barry Gardiner: Leaseholders facing ‘exorbitant’ ground rents for ‘no service’
The National Leasehold Campaign (NLC) is calling for ground rents to be reduced to a peppercorn value – effectively zero, as part of the bill. The government is running a consultation on capping existing ground rents, having abolished new ones, but no decision has been made yet.
The NLC urged the government to “be on the right side of the people” amid a “David and Goliath battle” against freeholders who are pushing back against the proposals. The campaign ultimately wants the government to make commonhold mandatory.
Labour said it will be down to them to abolish this “archaic and iniquitous system” if they get into government, but the party has vowed to try and strengthen the bill with amendments including the regulation of managing agents and the abolition of forfeiture.
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: “The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill will make the long-term and necessary changes to improve homeownership for millions of leaseholders across England and Wales.
“We do not think it is fair that many leaseholders face unregulated ground rents for no guaranteed service in return – that is why we have just consulted on a range of options to cap ground rents for existing leases.”
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Dua Lipa, Gary Lineker, and Benedict Cumberbatch join more than 300 figures urging PM to ‘end UK complicity’ in Gaza
Benedict Cumberbatch, Annie Lennox, Gary Lineker and Dua Lipa have joined more than 300 public figures calling on the prime minister to “end the UK’s complicity” in Gaza.
In an open letter addressed to Sir Keir Starmer, seen exclusively by Sky News, famous names from the world of media and the arts have joined leading doctors, academics, campaign groups, and a Holocaust survivor.
They have accused the British government of continuing to allow UK arms to be sold to Israel and to providing licences for arms.
The letter, led by refugee charity Choose Love, demands an immediate suspension of all UK arms sales to Israel, immediate humanitarian access for experienced aid agencies, and urges the government to commit to brokering a ceasefire for “the children of Gaza”.
In September 2024, the UK suspended 30 arms licences from about 350 involved in items that go to Israel.
British actor Benedict Cumberbatch has signed the letter. Pic: Reuters
Last week, Sir Keir joined the French and Canadian leaders to warn Israel they will take “concrete actions” if it continues an “egregious” expansion of military operations in Gaza.
The PM also told MPs last week the level of suffering in Gaza, especially among innocent children, was “intolerable” and called Israel’s decision to allow a small amount of aid in “utterly inadequate”.
The letter says: “We urge you to take immediate action to end the UK’s complicity in the horrors in Gaza.”
It says children in Gaza are starving while food and medicine “sit just minutes away” in reference to Israel’s 11-week blockade of food and other supplies into Gaza, which was lifted last week.
A new foundation backed by Israel and the US has set up an aid distribution site this week, but the UN has rejected the system as it says it cannot meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.1 million people.
The UN, which has warned the population is facing catastrophic levels of hunger, said it believes 47 people were injured on Tuesday when crowds overwhelmed the aid distribution centre, but Israel said its troops only fired “warning shots” into the air.
A truck carrying aid from the new foundation arrives at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Palestinians with food and humanitarian aid packages they received from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed group approved by Israel, in Rafah. Pic: AP
Among the famous people to put their names to the letter are singers Dua Lipa, Annie Lennox, Paloma Faith, Massive Attack and Primal Scream.
Actors include Benedict Cumberbatch, Riz Ahmed, Game of Thrones actress Lena Headey, Tilda Swinton, Maxine Peake, Marvel actress Zawe Ashton, Bridgerton actress Nicola Coughlan, and director Danny Boyle.
TV stars include Dermot O’Leary, Gary Lineker, Chicken Shop Date creator Amelia Dimoldenberg, and presenter Laura Whitmore.
Lineker finished his 26-year stint as Match of the Day presenter this week, after apologising for sharing a social media post from the Palestine Lobby group titled: “Zionism explained in two minutes.”
Gary Lineker has signed the letter
The Instagram post was illustrated with a rat, which has been used to represent Jewish people in antisemitic propaganda – including Nazi Germany.
Lineker “apologised unreservedly” for sharing it, saying he was unaware of the reference and it was a mistake. He maintained the importance of “speaking out on humanitarian issues, including the tragedy unfolding in Gaza”.
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PM steps up Gaza condemnation
Photographer and activist Misan Harriman, writer, model and activist Munroe Bergdorf, artist Tracey Emin and model Lily Cole have also signed the letter.
Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos has signed the letter, which says 71,000 children under four years old are “acutely malnourished” and they “cry until they can’t cry anymore – until hunger takes even their voices”.
It says they wake up to bombs falling on them, “violence stamped with UK inaction – flown with parts shipped from British factories to Israel”.
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Netanyahu hits out at Starmer, Macron and Carney
The letter warns Sir Keir: “You can’t call it ‘intolerable’, yet do nothing.
“The world is watching and history will not forget. The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute.
“Prime minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act?”
The letter comes just days after 828 UK-based or qualified legal experts, among them former Supreme Court justices, signed a letter to Sir Keir warning “genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza”.
Israel has repeatedly denied that it is committing genocide in Gaza.
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A government spokesperson said: “We strongly oppose the expansion of military operations in Gaza and call on the Israeli Government to cease its offensive and immediately allow for unfettered access to humanitarian aid.
“The denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in Gaza is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law.
“Last year, we suspended export licences to Israel for items used in military operations in Gaza and continue to refuse licences for military goods that could be used by Israel in the current conflict.
“We urge all parties to urgently agree a ceasefire agreement and work towards a permanent and sustainable peace.”
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Kemi Badenoch will be gone as Tory leader within a year – and there are plots already under way to oust her, Dominic Cummings has said.
The former Number 10 aide also claimed the Conservative Party “might be dead”.
His remarks came in a wide-ranging interview with Sky News, in which the controversial figure, who served as Boris Johnson’s chief adviser from 2019 to 2020, said Nigel Farage could “definitely” become the next prime minister.
On Ms Badenoch, who won the Tory leadership race last November, Mr Cummings said: “Kemi is going to go, probably this year.
“There’s already people who are organising to get rid of her, and I think that that will work. If it doesn’t work this year, it will definitely happen after next May.
“She’s a goner, so there’s going to be a big transition there.”
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Cummings on ‘getting rid’ of Johnson
In a damning indictment of the party he served, he said: “It’s quite possible the Tories have just, kind of, crossed the event horizon and actually aren’t salvageable.
“Like, everyone sort of assumes that because they’ve always been around, then somehow there must be at least one last chance for them to turn things around, but it’s possible that chance is in their past and doesn’t exist.
“It might be dead.”
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Watch the full interview
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Mr Cummings revealed he has held meetings with Mr Farage and advised him on how to go from “one man and an iPhone” to entering Downing Street.
Asked if the Reform UK leader could be prime minister, he said: “It could definitely happen now, yeah, because the old system’s just so completely broken.
“If he does what I’m suggesting, and actually sets out a path for how Reform is going to change, how Reform is going to bring in people, how it’s structurally going to alter, what it’s going to build, how it is going to do policy, how it can recruit MPs, etc.
“If he does that, then there’ll be a huge surge of interest and support into the whole thing.”
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Farage ‘could definitely’ be PM
‘One man and an iPhone’
He added: “Reform has been a one-man band. It’s been Nigel and an iPhone.
“They can win 50, 100, 150 seats with Reform as Nigel and an iPhone.
“But they can’t win an overall general election and have a plan for government and have a serious team able to take over in Downing Street and govern and control Whitehall with one man and an iPhone.”
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Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, pictured in Downing Street in 2019. Pic: PA
However, the ex-Downing Street aide was also scathing about Mr Farage’s personal appeal, saying it was his party, not him, that had become an outlet for anti-establishment feeling.
“It’s not exactly correlated with what people think about Nigel himself,” he said.
“Reform is a vehicle for people to say: ‘We despise you, Westminster. We hate both the old parties, we hate Whitehall, we hate the old media, we hate the whole f***ing lot of you.’
“And Farage going up in the polls is the expression of that core feeling.”
Mr Cummings left his Downing Street role in November 2020 after attracting controversy during the coronavirus lockdown when he drove to Barnard Castle in County Durham and claimed he was testing his eyesight.
Russia-linked hackers posing as journalists targeted staff at Britain’s Ministry of Defence in a cyber spying operation that was spotted and thwarted, the government has revealed.
Details of the foiled hack emerged as Defence Secretary John Healey said the UK military is bolstering its own offensive capabilities to conduct cyber attacks against hostile states like Russia as part of a long-awaited review of UK defence.
The Strategic Defence Review is expected to be published on Monday. It was launched by Sir Keir Starmer last July and comes ahead of a major summit of NATO allies in June.
A major new podcast series by Sky News and Tortoise which begins on 10 June will explore the state of UK defences by running a wargame that simulates a Russian attack on the UK.
“The nature of warfare is changing,” Mr Healey told a group of journalists on a visit to a secure facility in Wiltshire where the defence team that defeated the Russian cyber attack is located.
“The keyboard is now a weapon of war and we are responding to that.”
Defence Secretary John Healey
Part of this response, announced on Thursday, includes the creation of a new cyber command to oversee offensive and defensive cyber operations.
The government also plans to invest more than £1bn on improving its ability to hunt, locate and strike targets on the battlefield, drawing on digital technology.
“In future conflict, those that prevail will be those who are not just better equipped and better trained, but better connected and also capable of innovating ahead of adversaries,” the defence secretary said.
The thwarted Russia-linked hack was one of more than 90,000 cyber attacks associated with hostile states that were directed against the UK military and other parts of defence over the past two years – a doubling from the previous two years, the Ministry of Defence said.
Part of the increase is because the military is getting better at spotting the attempts against its networks. However, it is understood the attacks are becoming more sophisticated – making them harder to combat.
Late last year, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of GCHQ, alerted the Ministry of Defence to a suspected spear phishing campaign.
GCHQ’s headquarters. Pic: Shutterstock
The Global Operations Security Control Centre at MoD Corsham, in Wiltshire, which defends the Ministry of Defence’s networks in the UK and overseas, was tasked with identifying the threat.
The team worked on computers inside a large, windowless hall – filled with rows of desks and a bank of large screens along one wall.
“MoD detected a spear phishing campaign targeting staff with the aim of delivering malware,” the analysis by the NCSC said.
“The initial campaign consisted of two emails with a journalistic theme attempting to represent a news organisation. The second campaign followed a financial theme, directing targets to a commercial file share.”
The officials who were involved revealed details of the effort during the defence secretary’s visit to MoD Corsham this week.
One of the individuals said it took about an hour to spot the attack.
Asked what it felt like to discover the intrusion, the individual said “cool”.
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‘Cyber crime costing world $9.2 trillion’
The malware was linked to a Russian hacking group called RomCom, a second official said.
The particular code that was used had not been seen before, so the British side gave it the name “Damascened Peacock”.
“Corsham is famous for peacocks,” they said.
The two officials are part of a team of cyber experts – a mix of military personnel, civil servants and civilian contractors – who work at the secure centre.
A key focus at the moment is protecting a major deployment by the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, loaded with state-of-the-art F-35 fast jets and protected by a task force of warships, as it travels through the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen.
The carrier strike group is expected to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the coming days – well within range of an Iranian-backed militia that has targeted British and American warships and well as commercial shipping with missiles.
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HMS Prince of Wales begins deployment
The cyber experts, though, are trying to defend the deployment from cyber attacks.
Earlier in the month, US President Donald Trump struck a deal with Houthi militants to stop them from attacking ships, but the British side is still very alert to the potential threat.
“The strike group is going through what could be a high risk dangerous passage,” Mr Healey said.
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